In Darkness, We Hide
by Rheehemoth
Summary: Kisame and Itachi are travelling when they come across an old friend of Kisame's. She is pretty, smart and hilarious, but it only hides the darkness underneath. What will happen when Itachi finds common ground with her?
1. Humanity

**Chapter 1 - Humanity  
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It had been a really long trip. Her feet were hurting, her hair was matted, her clothes torn and covered with who knows what and she was just tired. It had been a good week or so since she had stopped moving for more than a few hours just to eat and rest. She had avoided all major and minor towns and villages, knowing that getting seen would be enough trouble.

She had heard that there were hunter nin in the area, and she didn't know who and what they were here for, so it was best if she just stayed well out of sight. About two hours ago, she had felt two very faint, but monstrously strong chakra signatures pass by her a few kilometres away, probably not close enough to have felt her own, or they may have mistook her for a scout and decided to attack.

Either these hunter nin were here for them or her, she didn't know, but either way she wasn't ready to risk it. She had been trying to get away from places where she knew shinobi patrolled, even though they weren't in a country that had a hidden village.

Her head snapped towards the east as the two chakra signatures she felt earlier surged, and she felt a few others rising, more than likely the hunter nins. Thankfully that meant they weren't trying to find her, but her curiosity was piqued by the severe weight that the two large chakras put on her shoulders, even from here.

The black-haired woman couldn't help but follow it, keeping herself hidden in the shadows with her jutsu and got close enough to see two men in Akatsuki garb fighting four hunter nin, with another four already dead on the muddy, and now bloody ground. There was a clash of steel here, and whiz of a kunai there, but the remaining four nin were no match for the other two, who killed them within a minute.

Both Akatsuki didn't even loose their hats in the scuffle, so she couldn't tell who they were, but she could see that one of them was huge, and carried a large sword and the other, while smaller, didn't seem any less intimidating with the aura he gave off.

She watched from the tree-tops to see one of the first cell of hunter nin who didn't seem quite dead yet aim a kunai at the much smaller man's head. Without realising she was moving, her arm came out from the shadows laid on the ground by a nearby tree to stab the man in his heart with her own kunai, and the one he had prepared to throw landed on the ground with a clink.

The two Akatsuki knew that someone else was there now, since her chakra had flared to stop the hunter nin so there wasn't much point hiding herself. She leapt down from her place in the tree's and pulled her kunai from the dead ninjas body before looking to the two Akatsuki, who she imagined were staring back at her blankly, though she couldn't see their faces from the hat's and high collared cloaks.

If they weren't going to thank her or even speak, she wasn't going to bother either. As she turned to walk away, one of them spoke up, in a gruff voice that she faintly recognised as someone she had known a very long time ago.

"Kenai, is that you?" they said with a brief chuckle, as if laughing at their own private joke.

"Fish-fucker?" she turned her head just enough to see him lift off his hat and give her that cheeky, smug and point-toothed grin that she had enjoyed all those years ago.

"Nice to see you too, shadow bitch." he responded as she walked over to him and gave him a light tap on the arm in greeting, which he returned by smacking the top of her head. He always found it amusing how small she was, when really he was just gigantic.

"Kisame, I presume you know the lady." the other man said, with a blank and quiet voice, but it was heard over Kisame's chuckles.

"Lady? Hah! I've seen more men with less balls than this one." Kisame replied with another one of his usual chuckles, just a bit louder this time.

"I never knew you swung that way, Kisame. Now I think about it, it explains a lot." the girl named Kenai teased with her small, but full lips curved in a devious smirk and blue eyes filled with amusement.

"This is Kenai, Itachi-san. I knew her from back when we came across each other as missing nin just before I met you. Similar situation actually. We were both being chased by hunter nin. Kenai, this is Uchiha Itachi." Kisame finally remembered his manners, somewhat and introduced the two.

Itachi took off his hat and was kind enough to bow his head slightly to the girl, though he kept his face blank. Kenai took a good look at him, seeing what Kisame's partner was like. She had heard of the clan-killing Uchiha, but seeing him now made her doubt the rumours that he went crazy and killed all his family.

She noticed his red and black swirled eyes and stepped right over into his personal space to have a better look. "An Uchiha. I've only ever seen the Sharingan once before." she smirked at Kisame before stepping even closer to the Uchiha who moved his head back reflexively and narrowed his eyes at her, though it wasn't really in a threatening way, the young man was confused as to why she would want to look when he could easily kill her with a single glance.

Kenai hissed in response but chuckled afterwards, unaffected by his 'What are you doing?' glare and fell into step next to Kisame, not knowing where they where heading, but following anyway.

They seemed to be in no hurry now that the hunter nin were gone and kept their pace at a casual stroll while Kisame and Kenai threw insults back and forth with laughter and smirks while they caught up, having not seen each other in years, while the Uchiha kept to himself.

"I see you've actually grown some boobs. I was starting to think you really were a man when we went our separate ways." Kisame noticed, not hiding the fact that he took a quick look at her before speaking his mind.

"That's funny, because I was starting to think that you might never grow some balls. I'm glad to see you aren't just a fish-fucker any more." she quipped back not missing a beat, and Kisame had a look of bewilderment before roaring loudly with laughter, knowing that he had lost that battle.

As he bent back with laughter, she glanced the other way and saw that even the Uchiha had a small smirk across his face that was barely noticeable. "Look at that, I even got the Uchiha smirking. I was starting to wonder if the wind had blown and kept your face stuck the same way."

Kisame stopped laughing suddenly, and looked straight to his partner, expecting him to be cranky that Kenai had taken a dig at him, but his remaining tiny smirk said that he didn't really mind.

"I'd be careful about toying with Itachi-san. He has a shorter temper than me." Kisame said, giving his partner a glance before looking back to Kenai, who looked like she couldn't care less.

"I thought he was some sort of genius. I'm sure he is smart enough to know that I'm only messing around. But you on the other hand, fish-boy. I only say these things to harden you up. I know you are very sensitive sometimes." she chuckled mischievously, still enjoying how easy it was for her to win against him.

"It seems you have met your match, Kisame." Itachi spoke up, drawing Kenai's attention back to him.

She wrapped an arm around the Uchiha's shoulders even though he was a bit taller than her, who tensed at the contact and shook him lightly while she laughed, "It seems he has Uchiha, it seems he has!" she let him go, surprised that he could still walk after how tightly he tensed but ignored it anyway.

"But seriously, how are you Kisame? Akatsuki now? I suppose it is only fitting. You being the Monster of Kirigakure and all. The thing that parents in your home village scare their children with." she smiled happily, getting the feeling that Kisame was doing well.

"I'm surprised you haven't been sought out to join the Akatsuki. That jutsu of yours is damn scary stuff." he replied with a shake of his head, not kidding about her jutsu being scary.

"It really isn't scary, unless I use it to be scary. When I used it against the hunter nin, that was the first time I had used it like that in a year or so." Kenai replied, her shoulder-length dark hair catching in the wind.

"What is it, if I may ask?" Itachi said, being purely curious in her power, having not seen of something like that before.

"It's called Kage Oni. I'm one of the last one's left I believe, aside my siblings who are stuck in whatever hidden village has picked them up, if any are left alive." she shrugged casually and scratched the back of her head whilst speaking, "Basically, all shadows are where I hide in. It works best at sunset, because the shadows are longest. It's weird to explain. Let me show you, and watch closely with that dojutsu of yours."

They stopped walking and Itachi watched with Sharingan focused eyes as the girl walked over to a small shadowed area created by a tree and knelt down and disappeared before popping up a moment later. She saw a connecting shadow about ten metres away, and she concentrated and let her arm appear, waving at the two men, and let it come back and she lifted the same arm out of the shadow, waving it again.

"That's just the most basic part. The real freaky shit is this..." she disappeared entirely, and decided to fuck with Kisame by using the tree he was leaning against to grab him putting both hands over his mouth watching him struggle in surprise, as he stepped away from the tree, her still holding on until she was dangling just by her grip and decided to let him go and chuckling as he glared at her while he stepped away from her quickly.

She allowed her face to appear, but it was only very dark and hard to make out and she practically crawled out of the shadow, and landed on the ground silently and smirked at the Uchiha who looked quite impressed with her display.

"I find it amusing how parents tell their children they shouldn't be afraid of the dark. There is a reason the dark frightens people. It's not the dark itself, it's what it may be hiding." she smirked darkly and huffed in amusement.

"Shadow bitch." Kisame muttered quietly, still being a little cranky that she managed to scare him, although he probably should have seen it coming.

She grinned devilishly at him, and kept on strolling Kisame following while shaking his head and Itachi keeping his head down. They walked and made random conversation about whatever they thought of, including various insults and quips flying back and forth between the shark-nin and the small girl.

"So, are you guys headed any where in particular?" Kenai asked randomly, wondering if they were just moving for the sake of it, or if they had a purpose to their travel.

"We were mostly trying to get away from the hunter-nin. But now I guess we are just going to find somewhere to stay. Sound alright, Itachi-san?" the blue-skinned man asked his partner, even though he was probably going to be told something else.

The Uchiha responded with a small nod, and Kisame smirked and began chuckling like always. Kenai looked around, remembering why she was actually coming out this way in the first place. She recalled crashing/hiding out in an abandoned farm-house not too far from here, which was where she was planning on going to.

"I might be able to help with that. I was heading to an old little place west of here. Don't know if it's still standing or if there is anyone else in there with the same idea, but we'll find out soon, if you want to come with me." the woman informed the other two shinobi, putting her hands behind her head and yawning after she spoke.

Kisame expected Itachi to decline, not being the most trusting person, but he didn't say anything and just continued walking in the same direction, so he took that as consent and looked back to Kenai. "Lead the way, shadow bitch."

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><p>In just under two hours, Kenai found the house, making sure to thoroughly check it out before telling the Akatsuki that it was safe. She opened the front door, and bowed politely then spoke in a posh voice. "Right this way, gentlemen." gesturing to the inside of the house.<p>

It was the same as the last time she was here. Dusty, dark and stuffy. She opened a few of the windows that weren't broken or cracked and Kisame sat down on a decrepit lounge, that made her cough and splutter with the puff of dust that rose from it's worn cushions.

Itachi walked over to a bookshelf in the corner of the room, looking at all the old titles, wiping the dust off one before gently picking it up and lent up against the wall next to the bookshelf, opening the old tome and reading silently.

After Kenai had tried her best to air out the place, she sat down on the floor and got out some spare blank pieces of paper and writing tools from her pack and wrote the write assortment of letters so the jutsu she was preparing for would work correctly. Kisame talked to her and she responded every now and then whilst concentrating, Itachi staying quiet in the corner of the room, but occasionally glancing at the woman, wondering what she was up to.

"Okay, all done." she announced out of the blue, getting up and stretching while the two men watched her curiously. "Stay here, this jutsu will keep us hidden." she explained simply before strolling out the front door and disappearing for a few minutes.

"So, Itachi-san, you seem oddly trusting of her. I didn't think you'd want her around. Any reason for that?" Kisame pondered out loud, the other man glancing back at his book with a blank expression.

"She merely gives off no sign of deception. Also, it's quite amusing to see you put in your place by a good looking woman that is half your size, and with even less discretion than you." he replied simply, no emotion in his voice, and since his head was buried in the book, he didn't notice his partner raising an eyebrow at the comment suggesting that Kenai was attractive.

"Fair enough then. She certainly comes in handy with things like this as well. No wonder she hasn't been caught. I doubt anyone can hide better." Kisame chuckled at the thought of the 'shadow-bitch' who was setting up a perimeter out the front.

Said woman walked through the front door at the cessation of that conversation, and Kisame watched her walk in the room and sit down again, just where she was moments before, placing down her last piece of paper in front of her and closing her eyes.

"Stay still please, gentlemen." she took a deep breath before smirking deviously, "Oh, and Uchiha, I'd say more it should be more than a little less discretion. I practically _taught_him how to not give a shit." a small laugh escaped her as Itachi's gaze moved from his book to her face instantaneously.

She held his gaze evenly and the look she gave him suggested that she certainly did hear the 'good-looking' part, but just decided to keep what seemed to be his version of embarrassment under wraps, which was a barely perceptible widening of his eyes and slightly raised brows. Kenai gave him a suggestive wink, torturing him a little more, and enjoying how he composed himself very carefully before looking back to his book.

Kenai formed a few hand seals and Kisame held in his laughter so he didn't distract her, amused at the exchange between her and his partner. A small prick on her right thumb allowed a drop of blood to land on the piece of paper, activating the seal.

"Kage Oni no Jutsu: Kakurenbo." she muttered quietly, before her chakra soared and then disappeared into nothing.

Kisame knew what she had done and the Uchiha had an idea, of course, his being a genius and all, but he decided to go out on a limb and ask her what she did, even though he may have felt a little concerned as to how she heard his earlier comment and even more so by her reaction.

"You used your jutsu to hide us in shadow?" he asked with a quiet voice, ignoring Kisame who was chuckling darkly in the background.

"Yep. That will keep us hidden, maybe even from your Sharingan." she smirked at him, knowing that the tiny flash behind his eyes when he met her blue orbs wasn't something he was used to.

"And you used another part of your jutsu to...eavesdrop on our conversation?" he asked again, trying to keep his voice level while Kisame laughed louder in the background.

"Yep. Let's just say, I have eyes and ears everywhere. If I leave my mark somewhere and I'm close enough to be in range, and with a lot of concentration and chakra, I can hear what is happening. I left a few inside whatever is left of my village, which is mostly how I keep up to date with everything." she summed up and yawned, feeling a little drained since she hadn't done something like this in a while.

Instead of moving, she stayed put on the floor, and simply dragged a crappy wooden chair over to her, and crossed her arms on the seat and rested her head on them. There was a nice bit of quiet until it got too dark and cold.

Kenai went outside to find a nice small pile of firewood that seemed dry enough to use. Chances are, it was still here from the last time she hid out here, which was probably a few years ago. Normally she wouldn't travel so far north until it was well into summer, but everything down south was getting boring.

She brought it in and the two men, Kisame looking like he was ready to sleep, and Itachi was regarding her with curiosity that resulted from boredom while she used a small bit of fire-natured chakra to start the fire, which quickly started, but would burn for quite a long time. Before she got comfortable, she brought the rest of firewood in, just in case it rained through the night and it got wet.

Itachi put down his book, since it was dark within half an hour and it was too dark for him to read by only the orange light the fire gave off. All three of them were hungry, and thirsty, but none of them had any food, and Kenai shared the rest of her water between them, until it was gone.

From memory, she knew that the place did have old utensils for cooking with, beds and cupboards, but the first time she found the place, it seemed like it had been abandoned out of nowhere, so there was expired food, and other things laying around from the last tenants that she had gotten rid of.

Kisame groaned with hunger and Kenai struggled to remember where the nearest town or village was. She was hungry as well, but Kisame needed food more regularly since his stamina stores were kept up by eating and making use of the energy he gained from it.

Itachi, as always never voiced his complaints, but she could see him place a hand over his stomach, when he thought no one was looking. Kenai finally had enough of Kisame's grumbling and went out to try and find some fruit or something nearby. Nearly a kilometre away, there was a few small apple trees, but most of the apples were small as well. Either way, she didn't care and she took them back, using the length of her shirt underneath her travelling cloak to hold them as she dashed back.

Both men were clearly happy to have something to fill their stomachs, Itachi's reaction being barely noticeable in comparison to Kisame's loud chuckle and sigh. The blue-skinned man nearly grabbed all of them, until Kenai smacked him in the head and walked over to Itachi and let him take a few first, before she sat down on the seat she had been resting on before, leaving Kisame gawping on the lounge.

She glared at him, making her point known and threw him half the apples that were left, making certain to throw them hard and fast, and luckily, he caught them all, but glared back at her when he took a bite of the first one, practically devouring the whole thing in one go.

After that, Kenai pointed them in the direction of the two bedrooms, and didn't bother to include that she was just going to stay in the living room, more or less to keep watch, but also because she still didn't feel too comfortable in this place. It brought back memories that she had been trying to ignore for a good number of years.

Kisame made his way to bed, saying goodnight to 'Itachi-san' politely, and giving Kenai a quip, which she just responded with a middle finger raised in his direction, since she was slowly eating her last apple, not even turning to look at him when she did it, leaving her and the Uchiha in the living room.

The fire was dying, and since Itachi was now seated on the lounge that Kisame had vacated a few minutes ago, with his eyes closed, she didn't think he would get up and place more firewood on it, but much to her surprise, as soon as she stood up, the Sharingan-possessing young man walked over to the firewood pile, and took a few pieces over and gently laid them on the fire as Kenai watched him carefully.

She was going to sit back down, but the warmth the fire gave off when it soared back to life was much to enticing, and instead she walked over and made herself comfortable on the single-seater couch opposite to Itachi, hanging her legs over one side, and resting her head on the barely-working armrest.

"I'll...uh...go to the nearest village tomorrow, and pick up some food." Kenai said quietly, lifting her head up just enough to look at the Uchiha when she spoke and he merely watched her and nodded his confirmation in response.

"Any reason why you are so quiet? You can actually talk to me instead of nodding, you know." she asked with the tiniest edge to her voice, not so much to show that she was angry, but just to maybe encourage him to not be such a 'silent-as-the-grave' type.

Instead of speaking, the dark-haired man decided to make it a little more fun for himself, and just lifted his head up to look at the woman, who stared straight back into his red and black eyes and nodded again, the light of the fire showing the tiniest shadow on his face, telling Kenai that he may have been smirking a bit.

She huffed in a mix of sardonic amusement and laid her head back on the armrest, and decided there wasn't any point trying and she just tried to sleep. After about half an hour, she realised that Itachi didn't seem to be leaving the living room, so she figured that she would use the bedroom, instead of letting him see her be a mess with mused hair, tussled clothes and sleepy eyes in the morning.

"Well, if you are going to sit out here, I'll use the other bedroom." Kenai said with a yawn at the end as she crawled out of the ancient seat and to her feet.

"It is only fair. You are the lady here. I'll keep watch through the night." Itachi responded without his voice changing, though if Kenai was looking at him, his gaze held slight amusement, finding that he was rather enjoying having a quick witted woman around.

"Lady? Me? That's the funniest thing to ever come out of your mouth, Uchiha. Maybe you do have a sense of humour somewhere under that blank mask of yours." Kenai turned to look at him with a lopsided smirk that Itachi couldn't help but find funny.

"I still am human, even though I am a shinobi first." he retorted with a much smaller, but still there smirk that made her laugh out loud, even though he was half-serious.

"Heh, many a true word is said in jest. But you've got it the wrong way around. It's the second thought you have before you complete your duty that makes you human, and makes you who you are, not the duty itself...Itachi." she sobered when she said his name and gave him a small nod in the form of a goodnight and he returned it with a look in his eye that she couldn't entirely put her finger on.

He was surprised to hear his first name come out of her mouth, since all she had called was 'Uchiha' and the look on her face suggested that there definitely seemed more to her than the quick-witted insults and lack of class front that she put up. His Sharingan caught every single tiny expression when she spoke and he saw that she almost looked lonely.

The young man was startled when he found himself thinking that he would like to know more about Kenai, and not just in a cautious and general distrust of someone he'd only met today, kind of way.

But then he recalled what she had said about second thoughts. He knew all about those. It was the only reason his beloved little brother was alive right now, and probably the only reason that he was still breathing too. Even though he had been brought up to never think of anything but his duty, put everything his family and village wanted before what he wanted, she had just shown him that he was more human than he realised.

With a small smirk, he allowed himself to fall into a light sleep, so he could get some rest, thinking about how Kenai had already challenged his whole thought process, even though they had only met just today...


	2. We All Bleed

**This chapter is dedicated to the first lovely person who put it on Story Alert! Fry-dei-luv, thank you so much :D**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2 – We All Bleed<strong>

Itachi awoke out of his light slumber as Kenai walked into the room, walking straight past him to go out the front door, wearing a pair of small black shorts that covered only half of her thighs, and a small red tank top but she was wearing her boots, and even though he had the self-control of a monk, it had been a while since he had even seen a woman dressed in such little clothing.

She didn't spare him a glance, and he decided it was probably time for him to get up, ignoring the previous sight. He stretched carefully and wandered towards the front door, wondering what Kenai was doing outside. He approached the front door, which had been left open, no doubt to air out the place and saw her standing in the small clearing at the front of the small shack, breathing deeply.

Itachi watched intensely as she began to do a few different kata, no doubt to stretch out and start off the day. She purposely exaggerated the moves and used the space around her, and started to get a little more intense as the minutes past.

Kenai knew she was being watched, but tuned it out, just concentrating on the task at hand. It had been a while since she had a good sparring session, mostly because she tried to avoid fighting as much as possible and she always warmed up in the morning with kata. She could feel the piercing red and black gaze of the Uchiha in the doorway, and it was starting to distract her a little too much.

She turned around abruptly, stopping right in the middle of a movement, breaking them both out of their almost trance like state. For lack of not really knowing what to say, Kenai didn't want to make it awkward, but she figured it would make her feel pretty good to have the chance, and spoke up so she could be heard properly.

"Instead of watching me, why don't you join me?" she said, and ignored the few weird images that popped in her head as soon as she said it.

The man didn't seem to notice, or just didn't show it, and removed his Akatsuki cloak, leaving it on the counter just inside the door, stepped down and walked over to her, facing off a few metres away.

"Just taijutsu. And no Sharingan. I'm horrible with genjutsu." she watched as he minutely raised an eyebrow as if to say 'It stays on' and rolled her eyes before taking a fighting stance.

These moments were always exciting in the life of a shinobi. Going up against someone you knew was powerful, but you weren't sure just _how_powerful compared to yourself. Eyes darted around and over each others bodies, looking for signs of attack such as muscles flexing but neither one moved.

Kenai was almost certain that Itachi's heart would be racing as fast as her own, just the thought of fighting an S-class shinobi tended to arouse the warrior inside. She didn't want to stand there for any longer, so she decided to make the first move. With most of her speed, she appeared behind him and swung her leg towards his gut, but that Sharingan saw it coming and he sent a fist in her direction and she just barely dodged it in time to regain balance as he sent another assault in her direction.

Over and over again, he caught her and she either had to block or dodge, barely being able to keep up. She knew that this would be a hard-fought battle, but she was having so much fun, she couldn't stop smiling. Itachi was smirking faintly, telling her that he was enjoying this too and she decided to kick it up a notch.

Using her full-speed, she started using the best taijutsu combinations she had in her arsenal and Itachi was forced to defend himself a few times, before he quickly gained the upper hand again, and forced Kenai back into a tree were he pinned her against it, his smirk quite clearly visible now.

"Fuckin' Sharingan." she chuckled and grinned darkly at him before using his own weight against him as she manoeuvred them around so Itachi would be pinned to the tree, taking him by surprise.

It took her whole body weight to keep him there, and a bit of chakra and she smirked at him in a way that made his eyes darken as he noticed things he wouldn't normally notice if he was sparring with anyone else. He had one hand fisted in her top, just over her hip and he could feel the warmth of her body radiating towards his own.

His other hand was pinned against the tree, and since he was taller, she had moved in close to keep it there, and he could feel softness against his chest. Suddenly, Kenai started laughing, clearly having a lot of fun, but it just made things a little more difficult for Itachi to handle.

She looked back at him and her laughter slowed to an abrupt halt when she saw his clouded eyes that were burning holes in her. Hiding it well, she let him go and stepped back, scratching the back of her head and kept laughing.

"Well, that was good fun." she trailed off as she headed back inside since she didn't feel like sparring any more, saying good morning to Kisame, who was seated on the lounge again, on her way to the bedroom she had stayed in last night.

The young woman was a little confused, but she figured he was only human, so why bother dwelling on it, and she forced it from her mind as she got fully dressed, intending to go into the nearest town or village and get some food and other supplies for them. She made sure to do up her travelling cloak before leaving the room, not wanting to entertain more thoughts behind Sharingan eyes and put her pack on as well.

"I'm going to get us some food and what not. I'll be back soon." she walked to the front door, and Itachi was leaning against the counter, and she didn't look at him instead keeping her eyes forwards, not wanting to see anything weird.

She went out the front door and began travelling as Itachi went back to closing his eyes as he lent against the kitchen counter. Kisame sighed loudly, being starving hungry already and he wanted some sake. He doubted that Kenai had enough money for all of them to be properly fed, but she had her ways.

It was two hours later when she flared out her chakra, signalling her return, walking in the door with things in her pack, and all of her pockets, which she dug out and set out on the kitchen counter before doing a bit of organising and placing the mostly non-perishables in the tiny pantry, and leaving out the take-away on the counter.

As well as that, there was candles for extra light, bottles of water, basic other necessities and comforts which both Akatsuki men didn't expect her to bring back. While she was gone, Itachi had fixed the water tank on the roof, allowing it to work for showering uses, even though the outhouse toilet was a lost cause, they had all gone in bushes before. It wasn't anything new.

"How did you afford all this shit?" Kisame asked with his normal gruff voice and the dark smirk that seemed to be on his face permanently except for when he just woke up.

Kenai's response was to fix him with a look so mischievous, he grinned at the sight. That told him all he needed to know. Obviously she didn't pay for it all. One of the things he had learnt from her, was to sneak into nice inns through open windows and steal their soap, shampoos etc, and food was easy enough for her to steal.

"You stole it all?" Itachi asked, with an almost reproving tone and Kenai's head snapped to look at him with an ironically amused expression as he lent up against the counter next to where she was laying everything out.

"Not all of it. I bought all the food, and non-consensually took everything else. C'mon, we're criminals, who the fuck cares? Would you prefer to be comfortable, or hungry, smelly and thirsty?" she smirked as she pulled out a bottle of some sort of liquor and Kisame immediately roared with laughter and took it from her hand, examining it closely whilst congratulating her.

Itachi still didn't look pleased about Kenai stealing for them, not really because he didn't want her doing things that were illegal, but more or less worried if she got caught. If she did, then it would be obvious to civilians that normal people couldn't disappear into shadow, so it would be only a matter of time before the area was swarming with hunter nin and bounty hunters from anywhere and everywhere.

"What's that look for? I thought the Akatsuki had a reputation for being 'evil' and shit. Now you are just looking at me like I'm a child. You guys must be so rich to be able to afford shit that you don't need to steal. Let me know next time."

The Uchiha didn't vocally respond to Kenai's angry words, though he understood where she was coming from. She was right though, neither he or Kisame had any money to afford anything at all, so either way they would have had to steal, hunt or starve.

"You Akatsuki must be the most privileged of S-class criminals. Me on the other hand, I've been stealing since I was probably 13 or 14. I wouldn't be here otherwise." Kenai got some cans of soup out of her pack and set them down next to the large cooking pot she had found in one of the cupboards, intending to use the fire to heat it up for them.

Kisame didn't bother giving any input to the conversation, being too busy drinking the alcohol straight from the bottle in between reading the label. Itachi didn't move from his spot next to her, just watched her with curiosity, wondering how she became a missing-nin after all.

The dark-haired woman tore open the cans, and poured the thick liquid into the cooking pot and carried it over to the small fire, barely burning since it wasn't too cold this time of day. There was a rack over the fire, obviously for the very purpose she was going to use it for, and she placed the pot on the rack, and built the fire up more, straining to concentrate and get some katon chakra to give it a boost.

Both Kisame and Itachi moved into the small living room, Itachi sitting at the small table, and Kisame parking his blue-skinned ass on the dusty lounge, that creaked dangerously as he let all his weight rest on it. Kenai moved around a bit before she grabbed the other chair from the small table and placed it in front of the fire, hanging her travelling cloak over the back.

She snatched the alcohol away from Kisame before he drank it all and sat down, stirring the soup every few minutes, the only thing breaking the silence was the occasional crack of the wood in the fire, the slosh of the alcohol and the birds chirping outside.

The silence was broken by Itachi, surprisingly, who asked Kenai something she really didn't want to go into, but guessed it was only fair to tell him, since she didn't have anything to hide and it's not like she cared about it all any more either.

"How did you become a missing-nin, Kenai-san?" he spoke quietly, barely raising his voice enough for her to hear him.

"Just Kenai, seriously. And that's a long story, but if you want to know, I'll tell you." she got up and took a swig from the now half-empty bottle and went to hand it to him, even though he shook his head in response. "You'll need it." she set it down on the table any way and sat back in front of the fire.

"Ah, well. For it all to make sense, I'll have to ramble on for a bit. Basically, I lived in this little hidden village over west. You wouldn't have heard of it. I lived with my family, consisting of my mother and father, and my four siblings. Three sisters, one brother. I know they all had the same jutsu as me, but I don't know whether it's a kekkai genkai or just a clan jutsu."

"My brother and I were the stars of our family. Our sisters hated us because we were better and they treated us like dirt, but my brother and I were really close. Our mother was kind and really caring, but I barely remember her because she got killed on a mission when I was really young." Kenai sat her elbows on her knees and rested her head in her hands, and Itachi looked at her profile, showing the small, wistful smile as she talked about her brother and mother.

"Then we got left with our father. He was a fucking ass wipe. Just a complete waste of oxygen. He was a shinobi, and a good one, but he took a really bad injury and wasn't able to work in the field any more. The fucking idiot ended up turning into a drunk. My siblings and I would be playing outside, and he would get home, stinking like a toilet and hit us because we weren't training." her gaze turned malevolent and even Kisame's customary smirk was gone at the sight.

"Eventually, one day he got so messed up that he hit my brother and he fell back and hit his head on a rock. He died, then and there. I know my father didn't mean to kill him, but I was just consumed with rage and I beat the absolute shit out of him. All I remember was seeing him with blood all over his face, and all over my hands on the ground and hearing my sisters scream." the woman schooled her expression to rival Itachi's while she spoke and her hands balled into fists.

"I got put in a lock-up cell, and I had to be interrogated and all that, but I didn't get in much trouble because of my brother being killed before my eyes. My father was put in prison, and by the time he got out I was 12. He had gotten out early for good behaviour, but I still didn't want him anywhere near my sisters."

"I wasn't worried about myself, but I didn't want my sisters hurt, or killed. We had been looking after each other the whole time, and didn't want our father living with us, but he didn't have anywhere else to go. It only took two weeks for everything to start repeating itself. He started drinking again, and coming home raging about us not training enough, though we could barely look after ourselves enough to eat, let alone train. I was starving myself so I could keep my sisters fed."

Kenai inhaled deeply, and her gaze turned inward as she stirred the soup mechanically, whilst recalling the images that had been scarred into her mind for her whole life. She could barely stand talking about it, but both of the men in the room had pasts just as sad and tragic, so she tried to not get bothered by it.

She huffed lightly as Itachi took a small sip of the alcohol, making a tiny expression of disgust before she took the bottle back off him, downing a mouthful before she could continue, figuring that it might loosen her tongue enough so that she didn't destroy the house in repressed anger and despair.

"At this point, I was part of a genin team and I was also learning medical jutsu, so I came home from group training one day to find my three sisters beaten bloody and unconscious on the living room floor. They were alive, but barely. I took them to the hospital, and luckily, my father was nowhere to be found. So, basically I went to our village leader and said that either he was going to be executed, or put away in prison forever for his crimes, and he promised me that justice would be served."

"I put my trust in that filthy fucker, and he betrayed me. When my father's trial day came, the leader of our village said that it wasn't my father, he said that_ I_had beaten my sisters and that my father was still nowhere to be found, and that he couldn't have done it. Of course, they tried to arrest me, but I lost my shit completely." she looked up to the roof, sitting back in her seat, as if cursing the heavens for her fate.

"I killed our village leader, and a few of the higher-ups who went along with that bullshit charade he pulled. I killed the secretary who backed up the leader's claim that it was me. I fled from the village, but I knew my father must have been hiding in their somewhere. Turns out that he had taken all the money my mother had left, which was supposed to be for my siblings and I, and given it to the leader so he would be hidden. I found out that my sisters had been killed in retaliation, so that was it for me."

"I learned of where he was using my eavesdropping technique and I went in the village under the cover of night, and slaughtered him. I dragged his bleeding corpse through the streets and strung him up in the centre of town. I was just insane with rage, grief, despair and anything else you could think of. Anyone who tried to stop me, I knocked them out. I had already gotten my justice. Also, my sisters weren't killed, it was just a rouse to get me back in the village to capture me, but it didn't work."

"After that, I said goodbye to my sisters and told them to leave the village as well, and then I fled. No one came after me, and we had been warring with another village nearby for a while, and I think they used the opportunity to take over. Since then I've been no where near the place, unless I need information about what's happening in the world."

She turned to the Uchiha, who had a much less blank face than normal, and she knew that he felt the same thing she had felt for all those years. A mixture of bottomless despair and rage. Since then, she hadn't wanted to truly kill anyone. What she had done was cold-blooded murder, and it would last her a life time.

Kisame had stayed quiet, and made no sound. He already knew the story as he met Kenai a little while after she had travelled east to this area. He knew that Kenai didn't like talking about it, but then again no one liked talking about the things that made them want to end everything just so they didn't have to drown in sorrow every day.

"I am sorry it turned out like that for you." Itachi spoke up, for lack of not knowing what he should say in this situation.

"No need. All three of us have a fucked-up past. The only problem I still have with it all is that I don't know where my sisters are, or if they're even alive. I haven't heard a word of them since. But that's my tragedy, or life. Whatever you want to call it."

Even though her voice was calm but casual, her face had no trace of emotion on it, except for her eyes, which she couldn't completely hide her despair in. The shadows the fire gave of flickered on her face, and the soup starting to bubble broke her out of her reverie.

She went back to the kitchen, carefully carrying the pot of hot soup with her and grabbed three bowls that were still in-tact out of the little cupboard and wiped the dust out, before pouring a bit of water in each of them to wash them out better before divvying the soup between the bowls, and taking two into Kisame and Itachi.

Itachi thanked her with sad eyes as she placed his down on the table in front of him and she responded with an almost heartbreaking smile, the most genuine expression he had ever seen on her face, and she handed Kisame's bowl to him before strolling back to the kitchen, grabbing a big bag that had a few onigiri in it.

They had two each, and Kenai sat back down in front of the fire with her meal and quietly ate, her eyes downcast and glazed over. Kisame finished first, practically devouring everything he had in front of him in one go, and Itachi finished afterwards, not realising how hungry he was until the smell of food hit his nostrils.

Kenai finished shortly after and collected up the dirty dishes and rubbish, and as Kisame watched her, his smirk came back on his face, feeling like the mood was a little too down and he proceeded to lighten it a little.

"I never knew you could cook, Kenai. Seems you are a woman after all."

At that moment, Kenai was taking Itachi's bowl and rubbish, and Kenai had a small shadow of a smile on her face, knowing Kisame was trying to cheer her up. She took one of the plastic spoons they had and snapped the round end off, and throwing the now sharp weapon at Kisame, chuckling as it embedded itself in the lounge next to his head.

She turned away, heading back to the kitchen, then washed and tidied up as best she could all the while still feeling a bit down. She felt another presence enter the kitchen, and she knew it was Itachi, but didn't turn around or say anything to him instead just waiting to see what he wanted.

He still didn't say anything so she ignored him and grabbed an old kettle that she had 'found' and planned on making some tea with it that she got from the cupboard. This old house had no power, but she had discovered the old one and figured that it was perfect. She filled it up a little with some of the fresh water she had brought back before turning to Itachi.

"Would you like some?" she asked quietly not even turning to look at him while she opened the small box.

"Of what?" he replied just as quietly, and with a hint to his voice that made her turn around and look at him.

He hadn't put his cloak on today, and was just wearing his normal dark blue standard shinobi wear with a mesh shirt underneath. His arms were crossed over his chest and he had a barely there smirk on his face, and his eyes held something she wasn't sure she wanted to analyse as he looked straight at her.

Instead of thinking about it any more, she pretended she didn't notice, and pointed to the box of tea that she had just opened, acting as if she thought it was obvious. She didn't want him to know that maybe her heart had beat a little faster after seeing the look in his eyes.

"Ah. Yes, thank you." the look disappeared from his eyes, and she watched him as he looked almost pensive for a moment before schooling his expression and glancing at her before going back into the living room.

_Weird..._Kenai thought to herself as she poured more water into the simple kettle before taking it into the living room and putting it over the fire. Kisame got up at the same time, and headed outside to train for a few minutes, leaving a bit of an odd silence in the room.

Itachi seemed to be struggling with himself, and he was getting frustrated over it. He stared aimlessly at the wall as he tried to figure out what was going on with him at the moment. He just couldn't figure out why he acted differently around Kenai. Was it because she was a woman? Probably not. Women never seemed to make him act differently, unless he was looking for some intimate company, but it never seemed to take much effort on his part any way. Besides, he'd only done that 3 times before.

Maybe it was because he hadn't spent a large amount of time in such close proximity with a woman before. Well, only his mother when he was a child, but that was a little different, since Kenai wasn't related to him at all. Was he attracted to her? It was possible. She was a very good looking woman, but he wasn't sure whether that would mean he would act so differently around her.

Or it was entirely possible that it would, he had just practically flirted with her without even thinking about it. Luckily she didn't seem to notice, so he didn't bother dwelling on it any longer, being broken out of his reverie by the whistling of the kettle any way.

Kenai poured two cups of tea and Itachi walked over and thanked her before taking his own and sitting back at the table. Their heightened hearing could catch bits and pieces of Kisame training outside, even though it was completely ignored of their end, both of them were caught up in their own thoughts.

After about half an hour of brooding, Kisame came back in clutching his right hand, and Kenai groaned, figuring that he'd hurt himself. "I think I've broken fingers." he chuckled, not showing any signs of pain at all, looking more amused than anything.

"It's your own stupid fault. I should leave you to fix them on your own, idiot." she smirked when she took a hold of his hand and saw that he certainly had broken fingers. Two of them and one was fractured slightly.

"What would I do without you?" Kisame responded in a falsely sweet voice, well, as sweet as he could pull off.

"Starve and die, or die from your injuries." Kenai quipped back with a half-serious tone, and an eyebrow raised.

When she had finished fixing them, she told him to be careful, and to go and have a shower since he smelled like fish, making him laugh, and Itachi smirked faintly in the other corner of the room. Hopefully the water would have been heated by the sun throughout the day, and it was nearly dusk now, so Kenai hoped she could have an at least warm shower tonight.

Luckily, he didn't stay in there for long before going straight into the bedroom, and she was sleeping lightly by the time Itachi got up and had a quick shower, which she wasn't bothered about. She hadn't slept too well last night, so she wasn't surprised that she was feeling a little drowsy by now, especially with her talking about her past earlier.

By the time Itachi came out of the bathroom, smelling faintly of lavender, the same scent as the soap she had taken, and the smell hitting her nostrils made her wake up fully from her light doze, and open her blue orbs to see Itachi drying his hair as he walked into the living room, then past her into the kitchen. With no shirt on.

He didn't look at her, but she was sure he knew she was watching his toned form saunter past her, not being awake enough to care about checking him out. She saw his lithe, but muscular form and eyed the muscles that rippled, contracted and relaxed until he disappeared into the kitchen, and she resisted the thought to sigh dreamily like a 12 year old school girl.

Instead, she dragged herself off the lounge, knowing that when he came back, she wouldn't be able to perve on him since he would look right at her, and headed straight for the bathroom.

As the hot water relaxed her muscles, she sighed/groaned at herself. It was becoming harder to deny that the Sharingan-possessing Uchiha was insanely attractive, especially living so closely to him that she could smell his manly, shinobi scent when she got too close to him.

Kenai eventually gave up on denying the concept, and instead decided to embrace it. She was a grown woman, with wants and needs, no matter how much she suppressed them, and ignored them, it still made her human. Of course she wasn't going to act on it, it would be kind of weird, but she figured that she wouldn't be staying here with the two Akatsuki members much longer, so she would just get over it when they separated.

When she took a deep breath, all she could smell was the lavender, and sighed since she knew this would harder to ignore than she would like it to be...


	3. Forgiveness

**Warning! There is lemon in this chapter, so take heed of the rating! :)**

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><p><strong>Chapter 3 – Forgiveness<strong>

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><p>Kenai yawned as she decided it was probably time for her to go out and make something to eat. There wasn't much food left, after the three of them had gotten into it, so she wanted to make sure there was actually something left over for her.<p>

She dried herself off, and started getting dressed when the bathroom door opened abruptly, making her stop halfway through doing up the clasps on her bra and stare blankly towards the bewildered man in the doorway.

Uchiha Itachi stood with a dumbstruck expression and his jaw dropped slightly as he realised his mistake. He had been so caught up in his thoughts he hadn't even thought to check for a presence in the bathroom before entering. There was no lock on the door, so it couldn't really be helped. Mentally, he cursed his own stupidity, but appreciated the scene before him.

Kenai was only wearing a pair of deep red underwear and she was doing up a simple black bra and he looked to her face before guessing that he might have been staring at her for a good few seconds now. He expected her to look furious, but she seemed almost amused and huffed lightly before doing up her last clasp and speaking to him.

"Maybe knock first next time, gorgeous." she chuckled silently at the look on Itachi's face and didn't worry about his mistake.

"S-sorry." he stuttered before shutting the door and heading straight towards the living room, where Kisame had just vacated, going outside to train.

The minimally dressed woman watched the door shut and laughed at the genius who she could have sworn blushed a little as he looked her up and down, getting quite an eyeful of her after she had just bathed. If it was Kisame, she probably would have smacked him upside the head that hard it wasn't funny, but she couldn't bring herself to scold the Uchiha when he just looked so damn hilarious as he realised what he'd done.

She took her time, giving him a bit of a chance to get over it, guessing that he would feel pretty stupid for walking in on her, and by the time she came out, she saw him sleeping on the lounge in the living room...

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><p><em>"You <em>will_follow me, Itachi. You have no choice." the dark figure said, their malice radiating out towards the blood-covered man who was barely able to keep himself together._

_He was right. There was no other choice. This way, he would know what was happening around Konoha, because of the Kyuubi jinchuriki living in Konoha. He would be able to hear of his brother's fate, and would do everything he could to protect him from his distanced-front._

_As his blood soaked hands still shook, like they had been for the last week, he looked up to see the Sharingan eye through the single-hole in the mask, the tell-tale sign of an Uchiha. This one however, was no ordinary Uchiha, let alone an ordinary man. And Itachi hated everything about him. He could barely stand to stoop to the level he would be reduced to, but there was nothing else he could do._

_Dark, murderous chakra flared out and he braced himself instinctively..._

"Itachi, for fuck's sake. Wake up!" a female voice shouted in front of his face as they shook his body.

Without even thinking, he opened his eyes to reveal the Mangekyo Sharingan and grabbed the person's throat before throwing them against the nearest wall, pining them to said wall with all his weight and strength.

After a minute, the shock wore off and he focused on exactly what was going on around him. He saw a dark-haired woman standing before him, looking very pissed off and her chakra was bubbling in her body and swirling around her with malicious intent, ready to destroy the person holding her so tightly around her throat she could barely breathe.

He loosened his grip so she could get oxygen into her system again, most of it being knocked out of her lungs as he smashed her into the wall, which was practically falling apart with the impact, but he didn't fully let her go.

"Do you want to get the _fuck_off me? Or shall I tear your still-beating heart from your chest and move you myself?" she asked calmly, but clearly feeling a little threatened, not quite sure if his sudden attack was directed at her, or just because she startled him.

Sharingan eyes watched her narrow her orbs at him, looking extremely frustrated, and very on her guard. He could see that she was ready to counter him, but resisted, obviously unsure of why he attacked her so abruptly. It took him a moment to remember that his body was pressed tightly against hers, and he could feel her soft curves against him.

His thumb brushed over her throat gently, as if in silent apology for the pain he caused her as his eyes went back to the normal Sharingan. Her skin was already splotching with blue and purple, and as he looked back at her face, he could see she was calming quickly and her eyes were now concerned and confused instead of full of anger.

Itachi exhaled so heavily his breath shook a little and rested his head on the girl's shoulder, bending slightly to reach as he was a bit taller than her and letting the hand around her throat rest on her other shoulder, liking that she was only wearing a little tank top and a pair of shorts. Instead of freaking out, Kenai stood still and let him have his moment. It was quiet for a few minutes, and Itachi broke the silence, still not moving.

"I apologise. I didn't not mean you harm. You merely woke me during a rather _disturbing_dream...Are you alright?" he spoke quietly, keeping his voice very controlled, which Kenai didn't miss, but didn't bother worrying about, since she was sure he wouldn't want to talk to her about it.

"Fine. The bruises on my neck and my, uh, thigh will fade." she replied just as evenly, feeling a little awkward at their position. It was hard to repress her physical desire for the incredibly attractive man before her when he was so close to her and she could feel his breath fanning over her neck.

He adjusted his head on her shoulder just enough to see that his hand was curled around the back of her thigh, holding her in place, but there was probably more of his hand cupping her rear end than her thigh. As he breathed in, he could smell the lavender soap, and a faint smell of jasmine, which came from her hair and remembered what he saw earlier when he had accidentally walked in on her.

Before he realised what he was doing, his grip on her turned more gentle and purposeful, and his lips grazed against her neck, and he smirked faintly at hearing Kenai's sudden intake of breath. She squirmed against his grasp, but he held her in place, firmly but with nowhere near the amount of force he had used on her early in his dazed state.

For at least thirty seconds, he gently kissed and nibbled her neck, being careful of the quickly bruising area that was still getting darker by the minute, listening to her try and even out her breath so she wouldn't breathe in or out too quickly and to control her heartbeat that was getting faster. He was getting closer and closer to her jaw, and Kenai knew she wouldn't be able to stop him if he tried to kiss her.

_Slam!_

The front door, slammed shut suddenly, startling them both, and making Itachi pull back letting Kenai go, figuring that it was probably Kisame coming back inside, having vaguely noticed the sounds of his training from outside earlier. Kenai swiftly sat down at the small table, trying to contain herself and figure out what the hell just happened.

"You're awake, Itachi-san. You were out cold before when I came to get a drink. Seems like you needed the sleep." he looked to Kenai, instantly noticing the bruising on her neck. "What the fuck happened to you?" he asked brashly, a hint of concern in his tone.

Kenai let her head fall back to look at Kisame with a scowl, and pointed to the Uchiha, standing only a few feet from her and then pointed at the partially destroyed wall. Kisame raised an eyebrow, getting the gist of the story, but he couldn't figure out why.

"I woke up the Uchiha to see if he wanted some food since his chakra was wavering a little, which normally happens when someone really needs food, and he slammed me into the fucking wall and damn near snapped my neck in the process." she growled with anger, and Itachi simply fixed her with another blank gaze, clearly apologising again, but she ignored it at feeling pain in her lower back.

She moved her hand around to pat the area, wondering if she had received a scratch or graze during the small scuffle, earlier, and instead pulled out a small chunk of wood, dripping with her blood. A small, low growl escaped her and she glared daggers at Itachi before throwing the sharp chunk of wood at him, aiming just past his head and watching his Sharingan focus on it and let it fly past his head and into the opposite wall before looking back at his feet.

Kisame chuckled, not bothering to make it obvious that he noticed the way that Itachi had looked at Kenai, and even though Kenai had glared at him right back, it wasn't just full of anger. He was more perceptive than he liked to let on, so he left it be and went to use the shower as Kenai finished healing her wound before making her way to the kitchen, mostly just to get away from the Uchiha.

She had no idea why he had just up and decided that she would be something nice to play with, but she still wasn't sure whether she was okay with it or not. Sure, she definitely thought he was attractive and wouldn't mind sharing his bed a few times, but this was a bit different because he had given her no chance to say whether she was okay with his touch, which she would never tell him was just too damn good for someone with so little experience, even though she probably hadn't had any more than him, if not less.

As she stood in the kitchen, mindlessly preparing a small meal for herself and her two mismatched room-mates, out of whatever was left laying around, she guessed that if Itachi had broken his cool, composed exterior, then he probably felt as attracted to her as she was to him. Before she could figure out whether she would welcome any more intimacy from him, she felt his presence behind her.

"Did I startle you earlier?" he asked with what she guessed was almost hesitance in his voice which she ignored for the sake of his pride, also noting he wasn't referring to the throat-grabbing, wall-smashing incident, but the one that came after.

"Ya'think? That was the last thing I expected after you nearly snapped my neck." she responded lightly, trying not to make him feel bad since she was still reeling from the memory of his lips on her neck absently wondering if he was going to do it again with Kisame not being around to see it.

She felt a hand on her upper arm and one on her waist as he turned her around and lifted her head up to get a good look at the bruises on her neck. He could see his own hand in marks coloured purple and looking sore. Kenai watched his brow furrow ever so slightly as if displeased with the marks he had left.

"Will you heal the bruises?" he asked quietly as he pulled back, keeping his hands on her, but looking dead in her eyes.

"No. I don't usually heal such trivial things. It's a bit of a waste of chakra to me." she answered casually, telling it true, since when she was running around by herself it would be almost stupid to use the smallest bit of chakra on something that would fade within a few days.

"I think you can spare it at the moment." he replied in kind, as if reminding her that if they needed to fight, there was himself and Kisame to consider, and only one of them could take more opponents than she would even dreaming of trying to fight.

She didn't offer a verbal reply, instead channelling her chakra up to her neck, healing herself from the inside, and the marks disappeared within a few moments, and Itachi's eyes softened, glad that her skin wasn't marred by his stupidity any more. He couldn't lie to himself any longer by thinking that he wasn't attracted to her.

"Is it...okay?" he _almost_struggled with his words, and Kenai raised a brow at his question, wondering what he meant. He brushed his knuckles over her cheek gently in answer, and she didn't think there was much point to her saying no, so instead she looked at him with a mischievous smirk.

"Itachi, if I minded, I would have followed through with the 'tearing your heart from your chest' thing." Kenai gave him a bit of a lust-filled gaze, and his gaze darkened slightly in response.

"Are you sure?" he asked again, as if he still wasn't certain, but his lack of self-confidence and experience may have contributed, so Kenai didn't bother getting cranky over it.

"I'll tell you again. You are human before you are anything else. I'm sure it's been a while for the both of us, so why should it matter? You are so damn fucking attractive I can barely stand it, and it seems like you are thinking along the same lines about me, so just stop your worrying." she sounded so much more confident than she felt, trying to gain some swagger and reassure him.

He seemed to relax then and nodded once before helping her carry the food she had thrown together into the living room just as Kisame came out of the shower, looking ravenous as always.

They ate in silence and Kenai took everything back to the kitchen when they had finished, before she went out the front door to climb up to the top of a nearby tree and watch the beautiful sunset with a wistful smile before going back to the small shack, that she was kind of surprised was still standing after so long.

No one came after her, even though she sat there for a while, and she didn't bother trying to listen in on whatever Itachi and Kisame were doing. Instead she wondered where she was going to go after they separated. Surely the Akatsuki had other things to do than sit around for weeks on end.

It did seem like they were both enjoying the down time though. They got a good sleep every night. Meals were more regular and they weren't travelling for hours, even days without rest.

The little shack seemed to give them an escape, and Kenai contemplated how much longer they would be there together for before she decided to head back inside once it got fairly dark. Kisame and Itachi were talking quietly while the fire crackled in the background. Kenai joined in their light conversation and it lasted for a good few hour or two until Kisame got that restless he nearly broke the table he was sitting at startling Kenai, who happened to be sitting across from him.

"Is there a good bar anywhere around here? This sitting around is killing me." he asked, his voice showing his frustration at how bored he was getting.

"Don't you remember that place we _hit up_a few years ago? It's only a little ways to the south." Kenai frowned but it quickly turned into an darkly amused expression that Itachi couldn't figure out, but Kisame seemed to recognise it instantaneously.

"Oh, right. Well, I'm going. You guys coming?" he stood up making his way for the front door, only stopping to turn around and speak again when no one moved. "Seriously? How are you two not going insane with sitting here?"

"Some time to rest is not such a bad thing, Kisame." Itachi replied quietly even though both Kisame and Kenai guessed that he was probably bored too, but didn't want to go to some crappy bar for amusement.

"If I was going there, you know we wouldn't be staying for a drink or two. There's only one thing there that I would be interested in." Kenai narrowed her eyes at the shark-nin and he shrugged, giving up on them.

"Suit yourselves." he chuckled and smirked in such a knowing kind of way that Kenai furrowed her brows in confusion at him when he turned around and disappeared out the front door and into the night.

Kenai felt rather awkward with just the Uchiha around, not really knowing if he was going to pounce on her, or just leave her be. Unfortunately, Itachi noticed her uncertainty and sauntered slowly over to her, seeing her tense when he was right behind her with her back to him.

Itachi knew that Kenai was attracted to him, but whether she really wanted to take things any further could be a problem. He did believe her when she said she didn't mind, but what people say and think are very different things.

So, he kept his hands to himself, which wasn't too hard since he had been trying to fight this attraction to the woman mentally since he noticed it and instead, gently took a hold of her hand and led her to one of the bedrooms. Conveniently, it was the only door except for the front door with a lock on it.

As he shut the door, Kenai sat down on the bed, extremely nervous but excited as well. She felt quite empowered knowing that Uchiha Itachi, a man who had killed his emotions as much as he could for whatever purpose, couldn't help but want her. It was a bit of confident boost to know that he could just ignore his hormones, and suppress all of the feelings, but he didn't seem to want to put them aside any more.

The lock on the door clicked into place, and it was almost like a war-horn signifying the charge. Unless she chickened out and ran away, there wasn't any going back now. She could swear that he had been trying to make her get a little worked up through the day, sometimes by just giving her look with darkened-eyes, or he would brush against her as soft as a caress and nearly make her shiver.

Also, he had left off not just his cloak today, but even his hitai-ite and hair band, letting his hair fall naturally and making him look more like a man, not a shinobi. She absently wondered whether it was all her telling him that he was human before anything else that brought this on.

Slowly he walked next to the bed, and laid down carefully, leaving enough room on the double-bed for his companion and she took off her cloak and sliding upwards next to him, just staring at the roof, being a bit too freaked out to look directly at him. He moved to lean over her, and she jumped slightly at the sight of the Sharingan, instincts kicking in.

"Sorry. You have nothing to fear with me." he explained simply as she wondered whether he would turn it off, but she had heard rumours of people with a particular Sharingan technique went blind slowly, and she figured Itachi would have it, all of people and didn't bother to ask him to turn it off.

"I won't bite..unless you ask me to." he smirked so sexily she nearly tore his clothes off and took him then and there, but actually found it so funny that he was making a sexual joke that she forgot about it swiftly.

Kenai decided he looked so much more attractive just being as natural as possible that she was biting her lip, not knowing whether she should just mount him like a tiger or let it happen slowly. For fear of making an idiot of herself, the latter option was the one she went with.

Instead of things heating up quickly, Itachi just laid there quietly with her, running a hand over her side until his touch became a little more full of purpose and desire. He nudged her head to the side and began kissing her neck again, just as he had done earlier, and Kenai loved and hated the way he seemed to get her motor running so easily.

She combed her fingers through his hair, which was beautifully soft, and she was almost envious of how long it was. His kisses trailed up her neck to her jaw and he finally, but slowly went to press his lips against her own. The nervousness was getting worse, but when she felt his tongue touch hers, she forgot about it completely, concentrating on every moment.

The top she wore was starting to twist and get uncomfortable as they both moved around, losing each other in their desire for one another, and as if he read her mind, Itachi's hand moved to her hip and slipped his hand underneath, holding onto in and pulling her off the bed so he could lift it over her head.

He had already had a quick glance at her half-naked body earlier, but he decided this was much better. Up close, and with his Sharingan on, he looked over every curve and every scar she had from her life as a shinobi, half-noting the tattoo on her right side, but didn't linger too long on it.

Kenai raised an eyebrow at him and glanced towards his shirt once their eyes met, telling him that his was coming off, right now and she enjoyed how he sat back upright and let her pull it over his head, except she was a bit nervous to do so. Itachi found her nervousness just adorable and took it very slow with her, not wanting to rush in and scare her off.

Everything became heated and Itachi wanted to reveal the breasts he could feel pressing against his chest and with one quick movement, he slipped a dexterous hand under her back and undid the clasps and pulled his hand back out, surprising Kenai at how well he did it.

She allowed him to remove it completely, and it was tossed aside to land on the old, creaky wooden floors, like both their shirts to be forgotten until they had exhausted themselves. He exhaled heavily, and cupped one in his hand, liking how Kenai's eyes snapped shut and she took in air slowly.

The young man took his time with his beautiful female partner, thoroughly enjoying every moment and every pleasured gasp and moan he managed to get from Kenai. He gently slid her pants and underwear over her hips, and took off his own before using his mouth and fingers in a way Kenai never ever thought was possible.

Whenever she made a sound, it sent a huge surge of both pride and pleasure through Itachi, being proud that he could do those things to her, and also very much relished how much it made himself grow harder with each sound.

He planned on making sure that she was well and thoroughly satisfied, so when she bucked against him and cried out in climax the first time, he smirked as she came down with heavy breaths and a sheen of sweat on her brow. He knew that it might hurt her, since as far as he knew, it was a fair while ago since her last time.

After he watched her for a moment, he moved over her and kissed her gently before getting a nod of confirmation from her and then very carefully pushing himself inside her, clutching a pillow so hard he nearly ripped in half over how amazing it felt. He struggled to contain himself, but willed himself under control and concentrated on the woman beneath him, whose hair clung to her neck and shoulders and eyes were practically deep pools he almost felt he could fall into.

With a deep breath, he moved and set an easy pace, Kenai's nails dug into his back, sometimes breaking the skin and he grabbed a handful of her hair as he began to pick up the pace. When Kenai cursed in pleasure he chuckled and nipped at her neck as he drove into her harder and faster.

It started to become a little too intense for him, so he slowed back down, making Kenai whimper but he moved off and and laid next to her, tenderly rolling her onto her side to make his chest be nearly flat against her back.

She cried out at the different feeling this position gave and Itachi gripped a hip with one hand and a small breast with the other, occasionally laying kisses across her the back of her neck and shoulders as they moved together against each other. It was getting harder for him to control himself, and he knew he couldn't keep it up much longer, so he just hoped that he could get Kenai to climax again before he reached his own.

A moment later, she moaned loudly and clenched herself around him, and his grip on her tightened significantly before he came with her, shuddering and with quiet breathy moans escaping him, not ever feeling anything this good before in his life.

They both came down with heaving breath and not feeling like they could move, and instead of bothering with clothing, Itachi carefully moved out of her and grabbed the blanket that covered the bed and placed it over them before they got comfortable against one another and feeling their heart rates slow before they fell asleep...


	4. Rage

**Apologies for the wait my dearest friends, I have got the flu, and therefore am off work!  
>So I'm taking the time to write as much as I can.<br>(Secretly, I want to stay sick, because I can feel my creative juices flowiiiinnngggg)**

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><p><strong>Chapter 4 – Rage<strong>

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><p>Itachi woke to a rustling in the room next to him. It had been two days since he had slept with Kenai, and not much had changed other than Kisame ignoring the obvious and both Itachi and Kenai being probably a mix of embarrassed and uncertain to talk about it.<p>

Kisame had crashed on the couch in the living room and Itachi had decided to sleep in the next bedroom, just in case the woman he was finding more beautiful every day didn't want him around. He heard the rustling, and it eventually turned into small thuds and sooner or later he heard Kenai leave her bedroom to go straight out the front door with angry footsteps.

Instead of going to see if she was alright, he listened as he heard her curse loudly and scream in the clearing outside at things he was not sure existed, but either way, she was very angry with them. Kisame was awake already, and was shuffling around in the kitchen, but had stopped at Kenai's outburst.

He made the decision to get up and see what the problem was, and as he made his way into the kitchen, he saw Kisame who was leaning against the kitchen counter with arms crossed over his broad chest, his customary smirk no where to be seen.

No words were spoken as Itachi walked towards the front door, opening it silently to see Kenai kick a tree, which shattered on impact, and as it fell, she paced angrily and he wondered whether it was the weight of her chakra, or her footsteps denting the ground that were making him feel uneasy on his feet.

She caught the tree before it fell to the ground, and he watched in utter amazement as the small girl whose height wouldn't even equal an eighth of the tree's height, and she spun around and threw the damn thing so far it landed at least a hundred metres away, with a loud crash.

His eyes were widened but his face stayed blank, and he wondered whether he should be frightened as her footsteps got heavier, and the look on her face was so demonic he briefly thought he should go back inside and leave her to calm down.

Something he couldn't put his finger on stopped him from spinning around and going back the way he came, and instead he made slow, careful steps towards the furious woman, not wanting to alarm her in case she decided to throw a tree at him, or cause some sort of natural disaster just by punching the ground. It seemed like she didn't notice him until he got close, and her head snapped towards him, and then he saw it...

Kenai was not simply angry. She was so distraught that she was angry. Her eyes were glassy, but full of a complicated mix of sorrow and fire, and it confused and shocked him. Her hands fisted in the front of her shirt, and it ripped with the force. He wanted to comfort her, but wasn't really well-versed in these things to know how to go about it.

She gestured him to stop with a flat hand, and even though he was at least 10 metres away, he could see how badly it was shaking. As she paced some more, her fury seemed to die away a little and she slowed to a stop after a good few minutes.

With a thud, she sat down abruptly, not caring that the ground underneath her was crumbling. Her body began to rack with quiet sobs, and she rocked back and forth in time with her breathing. Itachi started towards her again, being very cautious. When he was right next to her and since she didn't stop him, he knelt down next to her.

She was mumbling incoherently, and it sounded like she was saying someone's name. Carefully, he placed a warm, comforting hand on her shoulder and felt her body shake as she tried to calm herself down with the most even, timed breaths she could handle.

Eventually, her sobs stopped and she just looked so full of despair and pain that Itachi couldn't even look at her, instead moving her to lean against him, her head resting on his shoulder without saying a word. After a good few minutes, Kisame came out as well, ruffling Kenai's hair softly to get her attention.

"You alright?" he asked, his smirk and the normal chuckle gone. Instead, his 'brow' was furrowed in concern.

Knowing her voice would crack, or not even work properly yet, she smirked and stuck her middle finger up at the shark-nin, who currently towered over her. He smiled, almost profoundly, before making his way back inside, grumbling about 'leaving you two love birds alone'.

He already knew what she was upset about, having seen her go off like this once or twice before. Itachi, on the other hand, was completely bewildered by her sudden outburst, and kept his eyes on the tree she had tossed like a twig on the ground a ways off.

"That's why people don't piss me off." she grinned at him half-heartedly, trying to let him know that she was okay, but the intense worry that he couldn't hide as well as he would have liked to didn't ease as much as she'd hoped.

"May I ask?" he questioned carefully, feeling like he could be treading on eggshells, or swimming through broken glass. The latter, more or less.

"It was a dream about my brother. It happens every now and then. I get really angry, but I calm down pretty quickly. If I bottled it up, I'd probably go on a rampage and raze a whole city to the ground every year or so. So, I figure I may as well throw some trees around, make sure it's not a hospital I'm levelling or something." she tried to hide her devastation, but failed epically under the gaze of the Uchiha.

"Uh, I was planning on making a trip to get us some money tonight and grab some supplies on the way back. Is there anything you'd like?" she asked, attempting to break the awkward silence that Itachi probably didn't even notice since he was watching her intently.

"Dango, if you don't mind." he replied after a good while of staring into space silently, making Kenai wonder if he was even paying attention to what she was saying.

"Dango? Heh, okay." Kenai chuckled lightly, finding the idea of the Uchiha being enamoured by dango amusing as he stared into space again, for a reason not apparent to her.

She ignored the fact that she was leaning against him, or that he had a soft, warm hand on her waist, as if he was trying to comfort her. The woman wasn't entirely sure whether she felt comfortable with this sort of contact, more or less thinking that they just slept together because they could, not because of any sort of feelings they shared. She hoped he didn't feel anything for her, or splitting up eventually would be a little difficult.

Before she got too far into those thoughts, she huffed in a mix of emotions that she didn't want to analyse right now, instead she got up and stretched, and ignored Itachi's eyes following her every move.

Little did she know, he was currently watching the way her toned stomach was revealed slightly as she stretched her arms upwards, noticing some unfamiliar markings coming out from the top of her low slung pants that looked a lot like a tattoo but it was gone quicker than he could see it.

He had noticed it during their more intimate moments, but he had been a little more focused on...other things than to look at it thoroughly. Kenai looked down at him after putting her arms at her sides and wondered whether he was staring at her tattoo. She had got it done on her right hip and thigh so not just everyone would see it.

"You didn't notice that...earlier?" she asked softly, referring to their time alone that seemed like forever ago now, even though it was only the night before last.

Instead of responding, he merely raised an eyebrow at her, explaining everything. He did want to stand up and walk inside with her, since that's where she seemed to want to go, but he seemed to have worked himself up with trying to remember the blurred shapes and colours he had seen on her body that night.

She chuckled as he barely glanced down to his crotch and looked away from her with a schooled expression. Instead of bothering to explain it to him, she just lifted her shirt, and yanked down the right side of her pants, enough so that he could make out what was on her, which didn't help his problem much.

There was a large portrait with five different animals. There was a fox, snake, monkey, and two cranes that looked the same, but were standing differently and had different colours. It was beautifully coloured and very realistic, so much so that Itachi had to turn on his Sharingan and concentrate on it to make everything out.

When he finished his inspection, he looked up at her in question. She fixed her clothes and he finally felt okay to stand up and they headed inside as she explaining the meaning of her tattoo to him in a quiet tone.

"They represent my siblings and I. My twin sisters are the two cranes, they looked identical, but couldn't have had more differing personalities. My other sister was the fox, being a cheeky and sly kid when she wanted to. My brother was the monkey, since he was always running around like an idiot. Obviously, I'm the snake. It was a game we used to play as children." she smiled wistfully at him, and her eyes held deep sadness.

"So you did get it done?" Kisame asked, hearing their conversation since he was preparing the last of their food. Kenai had told him about her idea, but hadn't actually got it done until a year or two ago when she went back west a little ways.

She carefully showed him, not being so casual with her showing skin as she was with Itachi, not that she really cared that much, but it was more or less just normal caution to be wary of her pants falling down completely.

He smirked, liking how it turned out before going back to his food preparation. "Kenai, this is all we've got left. Are you going to do your thing later?" he asked cryptically, knowing that his partner wasn't a huge fan of these things.

"Yep. Has it gotten any worse?" she responded stealing a bit of the food with a cheeky grin which the shark-man rolled his eyes at.

"Much worse. You'll have fun." his customary chuckle became a little more dark than usual and Kenai had the same dark smirk on her face.

Itachi presumed that Kenai was going to rob some place and exhaled a little heavier in what was his version of a sigh mixed in with a disagreeing grumble. She didn't bother debating with him about it, but as they moved into the living room to eat their mix-and-match meal, she at least decided to tell him what she had been doing for money the last few years.

"Itachi. I'm not doing anything wrong. I don't kill any one. I don't know why they keep coming back, but I'll make sure they do stop eventually, even if I do have to kill them. There is a group of people who traffic young girls, orphans, abandoned children, they even kidnap them and turn them into prostitutes. I've been slowly destroying their infrastructure, which was what led me back here since they've set up camp here again."

"Kisame and I made a mess of the place a long time ago and I haven't heard a peep since, but about a month ago I heard whispers there was business running again. Look, if I'm going to destroy and steal money so I can survive, it doesn't hurt for me to try and prevent more crime at the same time."

The Uchiha looked at her as if to say that he understood her reasoning, but she was still committing a crime anyway, so she couldn't really talk herself, and she rolled her eyes and turned to Kisame before shrugging and shaking her head.

"I know I'm not a very moral person, but we've all done much worse. We've all killed people, people from our villages, our own families even. This pales in comparison, so you can just go get fucked if you still disagree with me going to all this effort to keep us fed." Kenai shrugged again, not really having any anger in her voice, but she was just speaking frankly, as she always did.

"Fair enough." Itachi had already finished his meal and walked into one of the bedrooms without another word, leaving Kenai to gawk at him, and Kisame to even raise an eyebrow at his odd actions.

"If he has the shits with me, I will probably wet myself laughing." Kenai smirked at her friend and he shrugged his massive shoulders in response, and collected up their rubbish before heading outside to train.

Kenai went after the other Akatsuki member and knocked on the door quietly. He bid her a mumbled entry and she opened the door to see him changing into a fresh pair of clothes. Currently, he had no shirt on, and was only covered by a pair of black jocks, and she gave him a good look with no shame whatsoever, since he said she could come in.

She turned and shut the door behind her, noticing it was the one with the lock on it, and proceeded to use it, knowing she would probably have to ravish the gorgeous man before she let him out of the room.

Before she even turned around, she felt him behind her, and his hands rested on her hips as he gently kissed the back of her neck and the tops of her shoulders, making her sigh and her knees feel weaker than she'd ever want to admit.

Kenai spun around and pushed him down onto the bed, making his eyes wide at her sudden display of dominance, but they darkened considerably at the idea of her taking control, and she smirked sexily at him and he returned it with his own tiny smirk as she crawled on top of him and made him make a few noises he never thought would escape him.

They lost themselves until exhausted and slept lightly until Kenai realised it was starting to get dark. They heard Kisame come inside and have a shower, obviously knowing what they were doing and leaving them be. Kenai dressed, smiling at Itachi who continued to doze until she was about to leave the room.

"Be careful." he said quietly and didn't even open his eyes to watch her leave, but she smiled at his almost peaceful expression and went on her way, yelling out to Kisame in the bathroom on the way past.

After Itachi heard the front door shut, he got up, dressing quickly, intending on tailing Kenai, just to make sure she didn't do too much damage. Not because he might have been a bit worried or something. Of course not. Just wanting to make sure she didn't destroy the whole forest possibly drawing attention to their location. Not because he was worried. Not. At. All.

Kisame was sitting at the small table with a deck of cards he had found somewhere, and he was shuffling them casually as he watched Itachi walk past him and head towards the front door, knowing that he was going to follow Kenai.

"She'll be fine, Itachi-san." his partner stopped walking to turn and look at him blankly, but Kisame ignored the defensive glint in his eye and chuckled. "She can look after herself, you know. She'll get cranky if she catches you!" he yelled after his partner who ignored his warnings and slowly followed the woman's trail.

He had to go by his sense of smell, and also the attunement to her chakra he had developed by being in such close proximity with her for a decent amount of time and after a good hour of travelling, he stopped when he could just see a large building ahead of him, and hearing a cacophony of sounds coming from it.

People were running out, mostly patrons and scantily clad or naked girls, some of them kept running, while others, more than likely the people who owned and ran the place stayed to watch what was going to happen to their building.

The ground shook suddenly, and a single woman walked out, carrying a naked girl over her shoulder, who seemed to be unconscious, and casually walked away before throwing what looked like a kunai over her shoulder into the building that was still standing...mostly.

A huge explosion shook the ground again, and he guessed that the kunai had a explosive tag attached to it, and before the smoke cleared, he decided to head back, not wanting her to know he had followed her. One last look showed her tearing the clothes off the staff and giving them to the girls before they ran off towards the nearest village.

Itachi arrived back within the hour, and Kenai came back about an hour and a half after that, her pack and cloak full with goodies again. She smiled as she gave Itachi his dango, and he actually smiled in response, making her laugh happily as she grabbed a bunch of other stuff out, and laid it out on the bench.

She knew Itachi had followed her, but didn't bother letting him know since she just didn't really care that much and after everything was emptied from her pack and cloak pockets, she showered, enjoying the hot water washing off the sweat and grime from the day.

It was her turn to take watch tonight, so she was glad for the nap earlier, and when Itachi and Kisame went to bed, she took to meditating on and off in the lounge room. It was much warmer than sleeping in one of the bedrooms because of the fire.

Kenai was bored out there by herself and she thought of sneaking into Itachi's room a few times, but decided against it, since Kisame was in the next room. The shark nin would not want to hear the sounds of their passion by any means. She chuckled at the thought of him cursing and walking out of the house.

She started to think about Itachi in a different light over the last few days. He wasn't the crazy clan killer that he was made out to be. Of course, civilians would exaggerate such things, since they didn't really understand shinobi that well even if they lived in a hidden village. In fact, he was kind, quiet and really quite funny once you got his sense of humour.

There was a few moments where she had thought about asking him what really happened to his clan that night, whether he just lost his shit and killed them in a fit of rage, or if there was another reason for it. She knew only a few small things about him that she'd learnt from whispers on the wind and the bingo book, but you could never trust such information fully. Shinobi were supposed to be secrets in themselves, why trust a rumour about them?

Her curiosity was aroused by all the things that she'd heard. He was apparently an ANBU by the time he became a teenager, which was just insane by her ears, but when she thought back to her doing plenty of higher classed mission when she was that age, she guessed it wouldn't have been too much of a stretch for her if she wasn't looking after her family by herself.

Also, he was the heir to the Uchiha clan. This bit of information led her to many different conclusions, but none she could back up with fact. Itachi did not seem like the type to want such a position, even though she didn't doubt he would be the highest ranked jonin in Konoha right now if he hadn't left, maybe even close to Hokage.

Being a rather honourable man, it was hard to imagine him committing genocide on his whole clan. But then there was the matter of his brother. She knew he was alive after hearing about his leaving Konoha as well.

If he did it because he hated his family, because he didn't want to inherit leadership of the clan, then why didn't he kill his little brother? Was it because he couldn't? Because he loved Sasuke so much?

She contemplated these various things until the early hours of the morning, and when she was meditating lightly, being it was the only rest she would get until someone else got up and came out here so she could nap for an hour or two before starting the day.

Itachi emerged from the bedroom a few minutes later, and silently sat next to her on the lounge. The pale woman breathed deeply and inhaled heavily for a minute, knowing he was there, but not really sure if she should ask him just yet. When she opened her tired eyes and looked at him, she gave him a small but drowsy smile, which he partially returned before looking at the fire with unfocused, dark brown.

It had been a cool night and the early morning chill still hung in the air, and Kenai had eventually snuggled close to him for warmth and even though his instincts screamed at him to not let her in any more, he was too tired in more ways than one to listen and just let her lean her head against his arm. She was always hesitant in her movements, and he knew that she was just making sure he was okay with it, before she got comfortable.

Silence was all they could hear, and it was almost peaceful for a minute as Itachi enjoyed the warmth of the fire and the body heat of the woman next to him, watching her chest inflate and deflate in time with her breathing. Occasionally her nose would twitch or she'd bite her lip, and he knew that she was thinking hard about something.

"Itachi...you didn't choose to kill your clan, did you?" Kenai asked so quietly he barely heard her say it, and she wondered whether he would answer, or brush off the question.

It was quiet for a long time before he spoke up.

"No. I wish there had been another way to stop them." he responded rather openly, which surprised her, but it still held it's usual mysteriousness and cryptic nature that shrouded the young man.

She didn't ask any more questions, leaving only the sound of the crackling fire, the occasional wind blowing through the trees and the early morning birds that were serenading the entire forest with their harmonised song. His answer was all Kenai needed to come to her conclusion.

Until Itachi began coughing so bad that small specks of blood were on his hands when he put it back at his side. Kenai watched in horror at the sight before her. Uchiha Itachi didn't cough up blood for no reason. She could see the anger on his face blatantly, he didn't even try to hide it, and looked away from her.

Her hands flared with soft green chakra and even though he tried to move her hands away, she eventually won the battle, his being weakened after the coughing fit and held them over his chest, eyes widening at what she found.

Uchiha Itachi was sick. Deathly sick.

She moved back, staring at him with a mix of emotions on her face and in her eyes. Her brow was furrowed, her jaw was dropped and her eyes still wide. She could barely believe it. He wouldn't have very long to live at this rate. Again, questions burst into her mind, wanting to know why he hadn't done something about this, if he knew what it was and if he could be cured.

Kenai went to speak but her mouth shut as soon as it was open. She looked away, having no idea what to say or do in this situation. More than likely, Itachi knew he was going to die, but then she didn't know why he had joined the Akatsuki, why he was trying to track down the Tailed Beasts, if that was even his goal.

There was silence again, and neither spoke even when they heard Kisame snoring, or the birds squawking loudly far away. Itachi didn't know whether to tell her, or to keep to himself, like he always had ever since he was young, or if it would be best for Kisame and himself to leave.

"I was on orders." he explained, and Kenai just looked at him, lost for words realising he was referring to her earlier question.

Kenai sat up straight abruptly, and stared at the ground with a look of deep concentration. She moved to sit in front of the fire, a shadow casting on the floor, then held two fingers in front of her face with her eyes closed and inhaled quietly. He guessed she was checking their perimeter. Talk of the massacre and thoughts of illness went out the window when she sensed presences.

Even Kisame came out, his cloak half on, and he fixed it before watching Kenai carefully. She didn't move for a few minutes, her breathing light but even and kept her eyes shut and her body relaxed.

Blue eyes opened and looked at both men with urgency. "There is a single cell. I'll take care of it."

"You sure?" Kisame asked, his voice still laced with sleep.

She nodded at him, grabbing her cloak and throwing in on in a single movement as she walked towards and out the front door, disappearing into the early morning light that was just beginning to emerge on the horizon. Both Kisame and Itachi followed, just to make sure she would be alright, and she sensed them moving behind her a fair ways back.

A surge of pride came over her when she decided to show them that she could more than handle this by herself. A malevolent smirk appeared on her face, as she disappeared into the shadows, like the demon she was.

Itachi saw the shadows all around them turn the colour of her chakra, which was a deep grey blue. He knew that this was her domain and that anyone threatening her would end up dead before they knew what hit them.

They stopped just behind her, even though they couldn't see her, and she ignored them as the cell moved straight towards them. In a split second, two throats were slit, and two necks broken. The two men felt Kenai's chakra and Itachi looked around to check for any one else nearby.

Kenai reappeared beside them and disposed of the bodies before she turned around to head back to the little shack and Itachi fell into step beside her, Kisame making his way back slower, since he would more than likely stay outside to train for a few hours, as per usual.

The young man and woman sat back down on the lounge, reverting to their earlier position, and Kenai's expression became extremely troubled, and Itachi knew that she was thinking about his illness and what he had revealed to her in a moment of weakness, a lapse of judgement that he couldn't seem to regret.

Things made sense now. Itachi was not a man that was dark and evil by any means. He was a victim, forced by the love he held for his country and it's people to draw the curtains and shut the windows on the light shining straight from his heart.

He was perceived to be a crazed homicidal man, when the guilt that he carried on his shoulders was slowly killing him. It was almost like his illness was the transient form of his guilt, regret and shame. Kenai knew that if Itachi had been ordered to kill his entire clan to 'stop them' then he had more than likely saved Konoha from destruction.

It was something that shocked her to her core. As far as she had heard, Konoha was a place of peace, not really sounding like a typical shinobi village. The ninja weren't mistreated, not only being disposable weapons for their leaders, like they were in so many other villages, such as the one she had belonged to.

She couldn't help but feel like Itachi deserved a second chance at life. He was obviously in the Akatsuki for a reason, it seemed that everything he did, he did with good reason and motive. More than likely, he had planned his every move, considering that it felt like his illness had troubled him for years when she sent her chakra into him.

As they sat there, lost in thought, the sun rose on the horizon, bringing with it a new perspective...

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><p><strong>Thank you all for waiting, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!<br>Please review so I can write this story to the best of my ability!**

**Til next time!**


	5. Running

**Chapter 5 – Running**

Kenai moved with such grace, she looked as if she was made of water as she went through basic kata, and stretched, enjoying the beautiful weather. Itachi was watching her with a cup of tea in his hands, the warmth seeping through him quite nicely. She yawned but continued on with her movement, moving slowly, then with such accuracy, speed and precision, it very much impressed him.

The shark-man watched quietly, waiting until Kenai was ready for them to spar, since he had already warmed up. A deep breath soared through Kenai's lungs, and she exhaled heavily, closing her eyes for a moment. A single nod towards Kisame told him that she was ready and he moved to face her.

"So, what'll it be shadow bitch? Jutsu? Taijutsu? Swords?" Kisame asked, his smirk getting larger as the seconds went by and he chuckled to himself.

"I know what that sword of yours does, so jutsu or weaponry would make you a clear winner. Taijutsu only. I might not die if we only fight hand to hand." Kenai sighed melodramatically and rolled her eyes when she caught Itachi's gaze.

The Uchiha smirked faintly from his seated position against the front wall of the little shack. Kenai was definitely a tough woman, being through all that she had, but he wondered whether her agility and technique would overcome Kisame's brute force. If he got a hit in, she would probably lose.

"You won't cheat with your shadow shit? Itachi-san, I don't trust her, you better referee." Kisame raised an eyebrow at her as he took up a guarded stance, ready for her at any time.

"Me? Cheat? Of course not." Kenai gave the shark-nin a charming smile before charging at him, not wanting to let him get the drop on her somehow.

Before they went all out, the first few moves, and combinations were just testing out each other's strengths and weaknesses before they fully made the attempt to defeat each other. Obviously, they weren't going to completely destroy each other, but they would definitely need to make it seem like they were going to kill each other to survive.

Kisame's biggest trouble was getting any hits near Kenai, whose smaller size (About two thirds, considering the swordsman was nearly 2 metres tall) was helping her avoid Kisame's attacks, even though he was extremely quick for his size. His strength would be the only way he would win, and Kenai knew it.

She danced around him, using the terrain to her advantage, but they gradually started getting more intense, and the smirk she had on her face faded quickly, as she barely dodged a punch that put a massive hole in the tree it landed in instead, and huffed in relief.

With a bit of chakra channelled to her extremities, she decided to take the worst possible option, but she hoped Kisame wouldn't expect it, despite knowing how incredible his perception and intelligence was in battle. Her full speed became her best weapon now, and her chakra would not be wasted since she did not want to lose this fight.

Itachi could see how determined the woman was, and even though he was a pacifist to his very core, training for your whole life to be a killing machine made you appreciate how good someone was in battle, especially if they could kill you. He could see how much Kenai was holding back in their sparring session, but this was more than a sparring session. Kisame was ready to take the full force of her abilities, and he even looked slightly concerned, making Itachi smile mentally at how good Kenai truly was.

Kisame knew that Kenai was ready to finish this, and that she would probably accidentally finish him for good if he wasn't careful. He watched incredulously as she charged straight at him from the front, and he could feel her violent intent as he readied himself for her barrage of attacks.

She jumped up high at the last second, avoiding his right jab, and swung her leg at his head, and even though he blocked it with both arms, the impact sent him flying and smashed into a tree, though he was lucky he didn't take as much damage as he would of if her kick had landed.

He went to return the favour after swiftly righting himself and swinging at her, but she blocked it, putting chakra behind so he didn't send her flying, but her feet nearly came out from under her anyway. With a quick breath inward, she prepared herself for her last attack. It was a specialised style in what used to be her village, but it barely existed any more, for obvious reasons.

When Kisame swung, she merely deflected the movement, sending it off to her side so it barely even missed her, but it put him off balance just long enough for her to slam her palm into his sternum with chakra pulsating into the strike and even Itachi heard it snap from his seated spot against the house, and his eyes widened slightly at the realisation that Kenai _could_actually do that.

Said woman's jaw dropped after she pulled her hand back and Kisame doubled over, not thinking she would do such damage to the massive shark man. She looked at Itachi with a bewildered and apologetic expression and knelt down, saying sorry to her friend while she tried to heal him as quickly as possible, though Kisame smirked the whole time as he leant up against the nearest tree.

After about 10-15 minutes, he got up, stretched a little and nodded his thanks and congratulated her on how well she did, patting her on the shoulder with large, heavy hands. It had been a long time since someone was able to break bones of his, let alone get such a good hit on him, and even though she still felt a bit bad for using such a strong technique on him, she knew he was proud of her, in his own weird, fishy way.

Itachi stood up and followed them inside and helped Kenai prepare some food while Kisame rested in the lounge room, sprawled out on the decrepit couch, somewhat like a content cat, even though she had just shattered and repaired his sternum.

She quietly got a mix-matched meal for the three of them prepared while Itachi helped just as silently, not really knowing what to say to each other. They hadn't actually said a word to each other since Itachi had revealed the truth to her. He still didn't know why, but no matter how stupid he thought himself for doing it, he just couldn't seem to care, nor regret that he did it.

As he stopped his actions, not even realising that he had, he watched her. Her face was mostly blank, but the corners of her mouth were turned downwards, in what wasn't quite a frown. He could only see her profile, but he knew that the same sadness he felt somewhere in whatever cold, shrivelled heart he had left.

Itachi wanted to tell her that everything was okay, but he wasn't sure whether it would be for his own benefit as well. The idea that she was stuck in the same situation he was kept popping into his head, until the rational side of his mind pushed it away, not wanting to entertain any more feelings than he already had done.

His boundaries had already been bent, pushed, crossed and completely broken, and it only took so much as a certain look from her, one with darkened and cloudy eyes, her gaze that sent his primal instincts reeling, and a tiny smirk that promised so many things. He really had no idea what it was between them and what started it.

It was almost as if they were on the same page. Haunted pasts tended to give people common ground, and missing nin, even though they kept their distance from one another, kind of had an unspoken bond in a way. Leaving their villages for one reason or another tended to give them a feeling of empathy for each other, even though they did try to kill each other if they were desperate enough.

In his time with Akatsuki, he had been all over many different countries, and seen more than one missing-nin on several different occasions. While Itachi kept composed and paid no attention, Kisame would give them a nod, or have a drink with them, sometimes knowing them as a friend.

No one would stand on each other's toes, and everyone would silently acknowledge each other. Sometimes fights and other hassles occurred, but these things happened inside villages as well, and missing-nin knew better than to draw attention to themselves, unless that was what they were looking for.

Everyone with a line through their villages mark was in the same boat. Except the Akatsuki. They weren't just well-known, they were known by shinobi and even some civilians alike. One shinobi could move through a city mostly undetected, but it was more difficult when people knew to fear the ninja dressed in black cloaks with red clouds.

Itachi was sure that Kenai knew how to survive as a missing-nin more than she would as a normal shinobi or just as a person in general. It was something that ingrained itself so deeply into your mind, that you could eventually almost operate in stealth whilst being asleep. You got used to having your chakra masked 24/7, used to not leaving a trail, no matter where you went.

The worst part was how lonely it could be. Itachi had been lucky to be partnered with Kisame, who he got along with, in a weird way. But Kenai had been alone for a very long time, and in a much more metaphorical way, so had he. This was the first time he had slightly let someone in.

Previously, he had only been interested in a woman for the sake of 'that'. It gave him a little something to go on, the idea that someone was okay with having him near them, and close to them, even though most of the civilian women didn't know who he really was, or what he had done.

He couldn't help but remember how much better it was with loving family and friends around, though he had tried so hard, so many times to block it from his mind, to lock it all in a little box in the darkest corners of his mind and throw away the key.

Uchiha Itachi had cared so deeply for so many things, and he was forced to throw it all away for another thing that he loved. For his village and his country, and the fear that if things went the wrong way, they would both be destroyed, he got rid of his family (bar his little brother whose hatred for him was the hardest cross to bear), his best friend, his girlfriend, and left the place he loved so much, to save it.

He had ran everything through his head, in moments of the deepest despair anyone had ever known, tried to pick apart if what he had done was right. Before he had joined Akatsuki, he had spent a week in an abandoned home, trying to find reasons to kill himself, to find reasons to stay alive, trying to find reasons for everything he had done and not done.

The Sandaime had promised to keep Sasuke alive on the premise of keeping the Uchiha bloodline, and therefore the Sharingan alive, but Itachi knew the moment that Sasuke saw him, beneath the darkened sky in the Uchiha compound, that he would have to make sure that Sasuke had something to aim for, a reason to become strong, so no one could hurt him. It was the people in the village that worried him, not so much outsiders.

So he stayed alive, kept himself going, struggled through certain death as well as his own illness for all these years. Never had he thought of life after all of this. His mind was made up long ago for Sasuke to be the one to put him out of his misery. When Sasuke could kill him, then he could finally go happily, knowing that there would be barely anyone in the world strong enough to destroy the one person in the world the tortured man would do anything for.

Kenai did the same, she left the village, hoping to keep her siblings out of the fray, but they had become a part of it, no matter what lengths she had gone to, to prevent such a thing. It seemed that killing family members was something you could never erase, a constant knife in the neck, and you kept it in there, not removing it, but slowly bleeding out, so slowly. He only hoped that Kenai still had something to live for and wondered if it was the hope that her siblings was still alive out in the world.

If he looked hard enough, he could almost see the knife in her neck with the way she moved, spoke and drifted off into her own world here and there. He was sure she would be able to see the same wounds on him.

"Are you alright?" her soft voice broke him out of his reverie, realising he had probably been staring at her for minutes on end now.

He nodded after a brief pause, and when she frowned at him, he found his voice. "I am fine. Just thinking." he said almost wistfully and was greatful when Kenai didn't question him on it, instead, just leaving it alone and not letting it become something possibly troublesome considering his train of thought.

Distracting himself from his earlier thoughts, he helped Kenai serve up their dinner, and handed some to Kisame before grabbing his own and seating himself at the small table in the living room. They ate in silence and made idle, but quiet conversation for an hour or two before Kenai decided to retire to the bedroom for the night, feeling more exhausted than usual today. Probably because of her and Kisame sparring, which definitely took it's toll. She could feel the stiffness in her muscles slowly fading while she showered.

She half expected Itachi to follow her, but he didn't and she was almost thankful for it, just feeling like a bit of alone time right now. She heard shuffling in the hallway, then a door shut and noticed the footsteps were not that of Kisame's. It was his turn to watch, so she was quite glad that maybe Itachi hadn't offered to take over for him.

Moving past the doorway that led from the hallway containing the bedrooms and bathroom, she said goodnight to Kisame, who was laying on the couch, and he grunted in response. She knew he was awake, and kept going to the spare bedroom, and laid down on the bed.

Her eyes shut, and she slept soundly...

* * *

><p>Kenai awoke the next morning to Kisame laughing loudly about something in the kitchen. She got up and dressed quickly, before heading out there to join him and Itachi, who were looking at a large portion of various types of food on the counter space.<p>

Itachi looked at her and gave her his version of a smile, which was merely a shadow of the thing passing quickly over his face. She returned it with a small smile of her own. It seemed that he was feeling better, and she was glad for it. It was quite a weight off her own shoulders as well in a way.

If Uchiha Itachi, the slayer of the Uchiha clan, and now turned member of Akatsuki, the biggest crime committing group of missing-nin who had almost infinite strength, could have a night to think and get past even some of what plagued him daily, then she could as well. She had been a little unstable since the dream of her brother, though the time with Itachi had helped a little to distract her.

Abruptly, Itachi and Kisame looked to one another and shared an expression of knowing between them. Kenai watched with a confused expression as Kisame nodded towards Itachi and made his way to the front door.

Itachi turned to the woman, and put his hand on her shoulder, the same hand that his Akatsuki ring was on, and Kenai saw that it was glowing.

"I will return shortly." he looked into her eyes with such an intense stare that it almost burnt right through her. Kenai nodded slowly and he went on his way.

It seemed that the Akatsuki leader wanted to convene with their group or something along those lines, so Kenai quickly grabbed a bite to eat and then sat on the lounge in the living room, which seemed to be so much emptier without the shark-man and his partner with the blood red swirling eyes that she was no longer afraid to look into.

About an hour later, they came back inside when she was half-way through a dusty book that was mostly falling apart. Kisame's expression was missing it's perpetual smirk and Itachi was looking at the floor.

"Seems we have to go shadow-bitch." Kisame said with an attempt to take a dig at Kenai, as if to distract her from the obvious. "We can stay the night and leave early in the morning."

Kenai smiled genuinely and Kisame returned it, knowing that this day would come eventually. She got up from her seat and wrapped a small arm as far as it would go around his waist in a friendly embrace. He returned her embrace with a much larger arm and chuckled.

He then headed off to the kitchen on the premise of making something to eat, leaving Kenai and Itachi alone in the living room, not sure of what to say to each other, or what to do.

"I wish we could stay." Itachi spoke so quietly that Kenai barely heard him, and she gave him a smile that broke his heart.

"It was going to happen sooner or later. I had expected it to be sooner than this. Just be glad you got some down time." Kenai laughed a little, trying to cheer him up a bit, and maybe herself as well.

He didn't say anything in return, but the look in his eyes explained what he wanted to say. He was glad for the down, but it seemed that he was reluctant to leave her. The short time they had spent together was great, and certainly unexpected, but it had shown them both so many things. They did still have feelings left, and they had learnt a lot of things about themselves and their pasts.

They were broken out of their reverie by Kisame bringing in some food for himself and for them as well. The blue-skinned man was thanked before he sat down at the small table. The tiny wooden chair creaked and gave way with a snap, leaving him sitting on the floor wondering what the fuck just happened.

Kenai looked blankly for a moment, then burst out laughing at the sight before her. One of the strongest shinobi she had ever met in her life, had been taken off guard by a structuraly un-sound chair. Even Itachi huffed lightly at his partner.

Dinner continued with plenty of laughs, and with Kisame sitting on the floor and he offered to go on watch, the ever-perceptive shark guessing that Itachi and Kenai would like to spend their last night together.

Kenai showered while Itachi and Kisame discussed Akatsuki related stuff and Itachi joined her in the bedroom after he had also showered. Kenai was already laying down, reading the last of her book that she had started today, and Itachi joined her, giving her the biggest smile she had seen on his face (which still wasn't that big) when she finished the book, shut it and put it down on the bedside table.

The outside world swiftly become non-existent as they concentrated on their last night together.

* * *

><p>Morning came and both men had eaten and gotten prepared to leave. Kisame hugged Kenai tightly and they shared an amusing goodbye full of well wishes laced within insults. He went outside leaving the younger man and woman to share their own goodbye.<p>

Kenai stood still, Itachi doing the same, wondering how this sort of thing worked. It was a bit of an odd moment, but it wasn't too long before someone moved.

Surprisingly, it was Itachi who made the first move by walking towards Kenai, gently lifting her head up to look at him, and when her eyes looked into his, the Sharingan spun and she tensed for a moment, terrified of what he might do though she didn't think he was going to kill her or even hurt her at all.

_It was dusk and she could feel the grin on her face as she watched him walking towards her from the trees. He quickened his pace once he laid eyes on her and embraced her as soon as they came together. He kissed her cheek and they went inside to the kitchen where dinner was almost ready._

Kenai recognised the place they were as the same little shack they had been staying in for the last while, but it was completely different, as all the dust was gone, the place was well lit, and the kitchen stocked. The house looked like it was being lived in. She almost felt like it was her home.

Itachi wasn't wearing an Akatsuki robe, nor any shinobi clothes. He didn't even look armed at all, though that was kind of the idea when shinobi were trying to fit in with a normal population. It seemed that they were living like civilians.

_They ate dinner and made light conversation before showering and getting into bed for the night, sharing their feelings through physical contact, and saying what they can't say out loud with a touch and a caress._

_Throughout the night, they laid and talked about various things, their past and shinobi life not being one of them, and it truly seemed as if that was nothing but a dream, and this life had always been their real one._

Even though Itachi was still the same, mostly stoic man, there were brief moments where he would smile like the man he was underneath all the death, blood and darkness. It was amazing to see who he wanted to be if all the mess his life had created around him never happened._  
><em>

_Morning came and Kenai woke to find Itachi not next to her. She leapt out of bed and ran to the front door where she waited for at least an hour for him to return. When he did walk through the trees finally, she saw an odd expression come across his face for the briefest of moments._

_He approached her and apologised for being gone without tellling her, not wanting to wake her. Then he began to talk quietly about something he went to get for her from the larger town an hour away._

_A small box was in his hand, and he placed it in her smaller ones with a shy smile. The woman looked at him, confused as to what could possibly be in the box. She opened it to find a beautiful necklace in it, and it seemed like it was very expensive. Her jaw was nearly on the floor and her eyes wide before she looked up at Itachi, who had a sweet, hopeful look in his eyes._

_Her arms flung around him before she realised it, and he laughed softly over her reaction while he returned her tight embrace. Light faded around her, and she could no longer feel his arms encircling her smaller frame..._

Kenai's eyes opened to find nothing but an empty room in front of her. Itachi's genjutsu felt like it lasted years, but she knew it would have only been a few minutes. Briefly, she flared her chakra out to feel for the two moving ones that were just on the edge of her range. She felt Itachi's flare out almost as if to meet hers and she smiled at the thoughts he must have had about the two of them.

She knew he wanted a different life for himself, doubted that he ever wanted to be a shinobi in the first place. But things did not work out as he had hoped for and now his life was one of constant danger, death and running. Just like her own.

So he would continue running.

And so would she...


End file.
